osCommerce

Has anyone been successful in getting the osCommerce ecommerce solution to work on dreamhost? I've tried several things, and keep on having nagging issues. I've tried it with my own compiled php and also with PHP of dreamhost... AND php as CGI as supplied by dreamhost.

The issues seem to revolve around paths and php.ini settings. If anyone was successful, I'd like to know. Feel free to contact me directly.

Thanks,
Aaron

I've installed it for a friend (under the php as cgi option) and it seems to be running just fine - the site isn't public yet, though. What kind of errors are you getting?

Hey!

The errors that I get have to do with uploading files.... like photos of products and such. I'm going to try again later tonight, as it could be a time dependant thing when switching from PHP - Dreamhost to PHP - CGI ---- with a brief custom compiled php.cgi between...

I will post how things go after I tool around with it.

-Aaron

Is this a good time to suggest going to the panel (Home, Suggestions), and spending some of your hard-earned votes on offering alternatives to Miva?

Filter on "Goodies - Miva Merchant" and you'll find 4 suggestions, including:

oscommerce,
icdevgroup.org software,
phpshop.org software, and
squirrelcart.com software.

Can anybody compare and contrast these options, and/or point to a good review/comparison?

Cheers,

BobS

Have you guys solved your uploading problems yet? I've been getting the same error messages when adding images for products and have been told by oscommerce forum that osc needs php4 to run properly. I'm not too experienced in php and was wondering how to install it under the php as cgi option as Skybly mentioned in his/her post. Does this fix the problems?

Fishing Forever
Paul

PHP runs as CGI by default on newer domains - you just need to check that the option is selected when you create the domain (or if it's already created, "edit" it and look there). You don't need to reinstall OsCommerce, just changing the option should be ok (it could take a little while for the changes to take effect, though).

If that is set up correctly, double-check your paths maybe and make sure they actually exist... I faintly remember that some of the directories OSCommerce is looking for (like the backup dir) don't actually exist unless you manually create them.

Oh, and it's "her" ;)

Yeah, things are working real well now. I would suggest the following order...

Day one...
Create the domain/subdomain - default option PHP as CGI
Create MySQL database with address and user
Drop it, leave it alone... come back later.

Day two...
Open a SSH window, use Wget to download the oscommerce files (or upload them with FTP - albiet slow)
Unzip/Untar begin installation.
Use "goodies" to .htaccess the configuration directory so only you can get at it.

I'm finding that most of my problems were centered around MySQL not being ready for me to use... and not waiting long enough for the server to reset for me.

Everything runs great now. If you need help, I will lookup whatever settings I used.

Good luck,
Aaron

Skybly, thanks for the help. I've made sure the php to cgi box is checked. My problem is that I don't know which directories have to be created as there is no documentation explaining this. Do you know of any guides or sites other than oscommerce's forum (I've been there) that could help me out?

Fishing Forever
Paul

Aaron, thanks for your help. Where do I find the configuration directory? I can only find the configuration.php files in the catalog/admin directory and the configure.php within the catalog/admin/includes and catalog/includes directories.

Fishing Forever
Paul

Hey!

You should protect the /admin directory. I believe that is the one that controls the software when installed... BUT ANYONE can control the software unless you password protect it. Since the software doesn't have password protection (that I can find), you can use the .htaccess in the panel to "get 'r done."

Aaron, once again thanks for your help. I will protect the admin files. Now if I could only figure out which directories I need to create that aren't created during the install and which files need to be changed to suit my personal needs I'll be on my way.

Fishing Forever
Paul

Just thought I'd post to let you know that the oscommerce site that I have been building seems to be working fine although I haven't uploaded it yet to see if there are any online bugs. Thanks again for all your help.

Fishing Forever
Paul

I took ardco's recommendation to vote for osCommerce and noted that the other three options had been moved to "discarded suggestions" on 2004-07-01. I'm encouraged that osCommerce is still under consideration.

Thanks for the heads-up. It'd be nice if DH would let us know when and why suggestions are discarded. Doesn't make much sense that they can still be voted for.

FWIW, it must've been discarded some time after 2004-09-20; I think 07-01 was probably the date added to the suggestions list.

More votes for osC!

Cheers,

BobS